Larry Allen Madden Career 1995-2008 - Peak 99 OVR

Larry Allen came out of Sonoma State, a Division II school almost no NFL scout visited, and became one of the strongest and most dominant offensive linemen the game has ever seen. A second-round pick in 1994, he arrived with a reputation for freakish power, reportedly bench-pressing 700 pounds, and he backed it up by manhandling defensive linemen for well over a decade.

Madden rated him exactly what he was: a wrecking ball. Allen's strength rating sat at a perfect 99 for years, and his overall peaked at 99 in Madden NFL 2003 for the 2002 season, a ceiling grade for a guard, with run-blocking in the high 90s. There was no exaggeration in it; if anything the number struggled to capture a man who could move a defensive tackle wherever he wanted him.

Allen made eleven Pro Bowls, earned first-team All-Pro honors six times, and was named to both the 1990s and 2000s All-Decade Teams, a span of dominance that stretched across two eras. He won a Super Bowl XXX ring with Dallas, finished his career with a couple of seasons in San Francisco, and went into the Hall of Fame in 2013. He died suddenly in 2024 at 52, and the tributes made clear how respected he had been. Madden's 99 marks a rare thing, a guard rated at the absolute top of the game, and for Larry Allen it was simply accurate.